A last-minute tax provision was tacked on to the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill last week, after US Senate negotiators made abreakthrough over regulations for online digital transactions involving cryptocurrencies. The provision signalled yet another move towards mainstream acceptance of crypto for transactions, as a recent Gallup poll communicated that 6% of adults with $10,000 or more invested in stocks, bonds or mutual funds own Bitcoin. The groundswell of crypto acceptance from regulators and the market isn’t just restricted to the United States, as markets around the world are opening up to digital transactions, leading to a rise in interest for companies in the digital currency space, including Mobilum Technologies Inc. (CSE:MBLM) (OTC:MBLMF), HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: HVBT) (TSXV: HIVE), Riot Blockchain, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT), Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA), and SOS Limited (NYSE: SOS).
With offices in Canada, Hong Kong, Poland and Estonia, Mobilum Technologies Inc. (CSE: MBLM) (OTC: MBLMF) is working towards making traditional finance accessible through compliant digital payment infrastructure and digital asset management technologies.
Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Mobilum was recently awarded a Payment Institution License in Poland, and announced it had generated a record Total Transaction Volume (TTV) of approximately C$5.3 million in July 2021—which represented a 30% month-over-month growth from the previous month.
“We are very pleased to see significant strength in our total transaction volume month over month as we continue to execute on our growth strategy,” said Mobilum OÜ CEO, Wojciech Kaszycki.
Mobilum OÜ, the Poland-based subsidiary, can now accept cash deposits, make cash withdrawals from a payment account, execute payment transactions, issue payment instruments like debit and credit cards, and engage in money remittance and transfer services.
“We are pleased to complete our first step to becoming an Electronic Money Institution by registering as a Payment Institution License in Poland,” said Kaszycki. “With this first phase of the process completed, the next step is to become a National Payment Institution which will allow Mobilum to engage in worldwide activities.”
Earlier in August, Mobilum announced it had signed an agreement with ALT 5 Sigma (“ALT 5”) to provide fiat-credit-cards-to-crypto on-ramp services to its users on Alt5Coins.com. Mobilum will provide its fast, secure, convenient and fully FINTRAC compliant on-ramp payment gateway services to ALT 5, allowing individuals on Alt5Coins.com to purchase Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum instantly and securely with a credit card.
“We are very pleased to be partnering with Mobilum to leverage their best-in-class on-ramp solution,” said André Beauchesne, President of ALT 5 Sigma. “As we continue to serve our clients, we look forward to a long-term partnership with Mobilum and enjoy their exceptional customer-focused platform in a safe and secure environment.”
Generating significant amounts of the cryptocurrency in circulation, HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: HVBT) (TSXV: HIVE) recently reached a $200 million annual run rate and purchased an additional 4,000 next-generation miners. Based on current Ethereum and Bitcoin prices, HIVE is generating daily income of $550,000.
By the end of the 2021 calendar year, HIVE currently projects a tripling of the company’s operational Bitcoin mining rate.
“This strategic purchase of equipment was realized as a result of the very strong relationships that our team have with the leading manufacturers in the ASIC miner space.” Said Frank Holmes, Executive Chairman of HIVE. “This transaction is part of our continuous momentum that we have for steady and controlled growth to be the leading clean and green miner in our industry.”
Competitors Riot Blockchain, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT) announced a production increase of approximately 406% from June 2020’s 48 BTC to June 2021’s 243 BTC. Riot’s year-to-date production through June 2021 showed the company had produced a total of 1,167 BTC, which is an increase of approximately 130% over its pre-halving BTC production during the same 2020 period of 508 BTC.
As of June 30, 2021, Riot held approximately 2,243 BTC, all of which were produced by its mining operations. Riot has announced its plans for expansion of its newly acquired Whinstone facility to 750 Megawatts (MW), up more than double from its existing, industry-leading 300 MW in developed capacity by the end of 2022.
GBITS has powered up their flagship offering the Knightsbridge exchanges that will not only provide a crucial source of liquidity to the global cryptocurrency market, facilitating billions of dollars in trading volume on a daily basis, but will cross over in to the traditional markets, Equities, FX and many more.
This will be managed by a series of our own proprietary routing and flow management algorithms.
As the market expands, the exchange platforms will scale in response to the demand for digital and digitized assets, offering asset custody, new trading features and functionality, and access to an ever-growing number of assets all funded from turnover.
With disintermediation as a core philosophy of the blockchain community, decentralized exchanges — or DEXs — have gained in popularity alongside traditional centralized exchanges (CEXs). Decentralized exchanges take a different approach to buying and selling digital assets: They operate without an intermediary organization for clearing transactions, relying instead on self-executing smart contracts to facilitate trading. This dynamic enables instantaneous trades, often at a lower cost than on centralized crypto exchanges, our Hybred DEX/CEX will change the world of trading.
In the absence of intermediaries, DEXs take on a non-custodial framework. This means that you retain custody of your cryptocurrency and are responsible for managing your wallets and private keys. Holding your private keys is considered a boon to users who want to maintain complete control of their assets. However, this comes with the risk that your keys could get lost, stolen, or destroyed; or in the unlikely possibility that you become incapacitated or pass away suddenly, if no one knows your password, your keys can’t be accessed. We will be offering the freedom of choice on how you wish to manage your money, The lack of an intermediary also means that most DEXs have limited counterparty risk and are not required to follow Know-Your-Customer (KYC) or Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) regulatory standards, this is the regulatory danger but we have preplanned, take a look at our Six Suite of products, Smart Blockchain based KYC and AML, a paradigm shift in the industry.
Knightsbridge is aiming to be a leading global exchange/broker/counterparty within 5 years.
Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA) increased its production 66% month-over-month to 442.2 BTC in July, increasing its Total Bitcoin Holdings to approximately 6,225.6 BTC, which as of the company’s latest corporate update was worth approximately $260.7 million.
On August 1, 2021, Marathon announced the purchase of an additional 30,000 S19j Pro miners from Bitmain. The acquisition is expected to increase Marathon’s mining operations to approximately 133,000 miners producing approximately 13.3 EH/s once all miners are deployed.
“With this new order, we are growing our operations by 30% to approximately 133,000 miners, producing 13.3 EH/s. As a result, once all miners are fully deployed, our mining operations will be among the largest, not just in North America, but globally,” said Fred Thiel, Marathon’s CEO. “We’d like to thank the team at Bitmain for expediting this order as we work to further scale our operations and establish Marathon as one of the leading Bitcoin miners in North America.”
“Marathon is a key customer of Bitmain’s, and we appreciate the opportunity to support their growth with another large order for 30,000 of the industry’s most powerful and efficient miners,” said Antminer Sales Director of North, Central, and South America (NCSA) at Bitmain Irene Gao. “We look forward to continuing to collaborate and build upon this mutually beneficial relationship.”
Chinese-based SOS Limited (NYSE: SOS) recently announced it has entered a joint venture agreement with Niagara Development, in an effort to accelerate its blockchain operations into the US. The joint venture, newly dubbed as FD LLC, is expected to carry out crypto-currency mining operations and construct an international standardized Digital Super Computing Custody Operation Centre.
Under terms of the deal, Niagara Development will provide up to 150MW of electricity, and construction the Digital Super Computing Custody Operation Center, while SOS will be responsible for the management, operations and financing of the joint venture.
“We decided to acquire a sustainable power supply as far as possible, as we expand our blockchain operations into North America and look forward to successful operation of the joint venture,” said Yandai Wang, Chairman of SOS. “We continue to explore the possibility of acquisition of Niagara Development, Sherman Development LLC, and Park Falls Management LLC. Although at this point, we do not have any definitive agreement for such acquisition, we remain optimistic about our strategic expansion in North America.”
